Delicious Vegetable Noodles with Pepitas, Cilantro-Pesto
Delicious Vegetable Noodles with Pepitas, Cilantro-Pesto
This is a simple, delicious yet elegant recipe that you can enjoy any season.
Vegetable noodles are always a healthy alternative to pasta. Add fresh pesto to your butternut squash pasta noodles for a simple and healthy dish that the entire family will enjoy!
Ever since the spiralizers came out, I’ve been a big fan. I’m glad that the spiralizer has become so popular because it has brought so much fun to making vegetable side dishes (and the children love to play with them as well!). I love using my spiralizer, and I often talk about it with people who need one and when I do my cooking classes. It’s such a cool and easy to clean kitchen gadget that makes your dishes fun and veggie-packed meals! What is not to love?!
This is the spiralizer I use.
I love veggie noodles. They are fun, colorful, and not hard to make. I know that you probably have heard about zucchini noodles, but maybe you did not know that you can use a lot of different vegetables such as beets, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, daikon radish, kohlrabi, cucumber, summer squash or sweet potatoes. I love to mix them together for color and texture. You can make some fun salad with them.
For today’s recipe, I used butternut squash. This pepita cilantro pesto sauce is simple, delicious, and a staple in my kitchen.
Ingredients Needed for Butternut Squash Noodles:
- butternut squash
- pepita, cilantro pesto (you can also get
- cherry tomatoes
- permease cheese (optional, I’m using nutritional yeast instead, but you can add parmesan cheese as well if you are not vegan)
- salt and pepper
- pepita seeds and fresh cilantro for garnish
How to Make Veggie (Butternut Squash noodles) Noodles
- Always look for a squash with a long neck. Chop off the round, seedy base of the squash (you can still use this part for soup, or you can roast it).
- Shave the skin off. You can use a vegetable shaver or so it with a knife.
- Get your spiralizer ready (here is the one I use) and spiralize the butternut squash. Usually, a spiralizer has 3 different blades that will give you 3 different kinds of noodles blades. Pick one, use it and see how you like it. Next time you can use a different one. Set the noodles aside.
- You can tap dry them with a paper towel to make sure they are dry for cooking.
Suppose you don’t have any of these tools or just want to take a shortcut. In that case, you can buy prepared veggie noodles from the store. Whole Foods had them, and you can find them in the produce section (with other pre-chopped veggies).
How to Make Pepita, Cilantro Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 cups pepitas (green pumpkin seeds), toasted**
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 cups packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- Salt, to taste
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (optional)
Butternut Squash Noodles
- 1 large butternut squash
- Salt
- 1 pint of cherry tomatoes – sliced in half (optional)
- Fresh cilantro leaves and pepitas for garnishing
Instructions
- Pesto: Toast pepitas on the hot medium pan for 5-10 min. Stir them occasionally. In a food processor, combine the toasted pepitas, garlic, cilantro leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, and black pepper. Pulse until smooth.
- Noodles: Spiralize the butternut squash with spiralizer zucchini with a spiralizer.
- Heat the oil in the large skillet and add the noodles. Make sure that you don’t overcrowd the pan. Cook in two batches if you need to. You don’t want your noodles soggy. Cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring gently.
- When the noodles are ready, transfer them to the medium bowl, add pesto and gently massage them.
- Move it to the plate, add some cherry tomatoes (I like to lightly stir-fry them for flavor), cilantro, and pepitas for garnish). You can also add parmesan cheese for garnish or nutritional yeast). Sprinkle with freshly crushed black pepper and flaky salt.
NOTES:
- **To toast the pepitas, pour them into a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, frequently stirring, until the seeds are fragrant and the pepitas start making little popping noises, around 5 minutes.
